BEIJING, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese foreign ministry on Wednesday continued to blast the widely-criticized remarks by a senior Japanese official that "Japan should have nuclear weapons," saying it was by no means an isolated incident.
Those remarks of the official -- supposedly someone close to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi -- came on the heels of Takaichi's erroneous remarks on Taiwan, revealing the long-standing wrongful proposition and ambition of Takaichi and Japanese right-wing forces to keep remilitarizing Japan, said Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry.
In recent years, Japan has removed the ban on exercising the right to collective self-defense, developed intermediate-range offensive weapons, increased military deployment, restructured the command systems, and expanded the area and scope of Self-Defense Forces activities, Lin said.
This amounts to a severe violation of provisions in instruments with legal effect under international law, including the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation, and of Japan's own Constitution, he said.
Only two months into office, Prime Minister Takaichi has accelerated military buildup, hit the defense-spending target of two percent of GDP two years early, further relaxed restrictions on arms exports, pushed forward the revision of the three documents on security and defense, including National Security Strategy, discussed the revision on the three non-nuclear principles, and implied the introduction of nuclear-powered submarines.
Lin said the nuclear weapon remarks represented yet another attempt of the Japanese side to intentionally test the bottom line of the international community, sending an extremely dangerous signal.
These moves challenge the post-war international order, threaten regional peace and stability, and do not serve the interest of the Japanese people, he said.
China and all other peace-loving countries will respond to those developments together and firmly prevent the resurgence of Japanese militarism, he added. ■
